Language Choice in Music: A Sociolinguistic Study on Motivations Behind Language Choice

English songs are currently dominating the charts according to the most played songs on Norwegian radio stations and several popular playlists on Spotify in Norway (Spotify, n.d.; Spotifycharts, n.d.; Gramo, 2019). This fact might generate issues related to language choice in relation to choosing English or Norwegian by Norwegian artists. The present study is an exploratory and content driven study, and aims to investigate artists’ motivations for language choice in music and the audiences’ beliefs about these choices. Also, the study aims to uncover reasons for why English and Norwegian are considered to be good languages to use in music. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, more specifically interviews and surveys, the research gathers information from various perspectives and investigates whether the artists’ motivations and the audiences’ beliefs regarding these motivations are similar or deviating. The present study has provided a great amount of information on the topic, which is one that we do not yet know much about in Norway. The research uncovered a large number of perspectives and findings, however, the main findings regarding motivations for language choice in music are found to be related to the importance of chances of success and popularity, linguistic advantages like perceived suitability of languages with regard to flow and catchiness, the artists’ ability to express authenticity and identity, inspiration from musical references, and the importance of communication with the audience. The study also found an increase in recognition and rise of Norwegian in music, described here as a ‘Norwegian wave’. These findings were mentioned often and eagerly by both groups of informants. The results from the study highlight a majority preference for English lyrics due to international popularity and increased artist opportunities. Many informants also demonstrated positive attitudes towards the use of English in pop music overall. However, the use of Norwegian in music is considered to hold advantages related to indexing authenticity and identity of artists, and it might be reasonable to believe that attitudes towards Norwegian music are in the process of shifting into a more positive direction. This might be due to the increasing popularity and acceptance of Norwegian-language music